Eric
“Eric, I had these hardwood floors installed just a bit over a year ago. I swear to… whoever or whatever is out there listening to me, I will kill you if you wear through them,” Bennie said from where he was sitting on the couch, a blanket covering his lower half, pale fingers wrapped around a video game controller. And then there was that shit-eating grin on his face that I’d like to scratch off right now.
Of course, things were easy for him.
I was the only one he shared a meaningful bond with—and I was right here. His instincts weren’t running rampant because his mate was out there, during the day, teaching a bunch of middle schoolers.
I wasn’t sure what the biggest danger was.
Finn being almost an hour away from me. Finn being out and about alone during the day, when—even if I wanted to—Icouldn’t get to him due to the distance between us. Or of course, those middle schoolers. Kids that age were fucking brutal.
“He’s gonna be back in about three hours.”
I snarled.
Three hours was a fuckingeternity. It might as well have been three days, weeks, months, or even years.
I needed to see Finn. Needed to make sure he was okay. That no one—be it child or vampire—was threatening him. I needed to…
“Eric, stop.” Bennie sighed, patting the couch next to him. “Get your ass over here and sit down.”
I didn’t want to, but pouting like a child wouldn’t help me either.
What would help me was talking to Finn. But he’d already checked in with me twice. I couldn’t make him text me every hour, I knew that, but my body just hadn’t gotten the memo yet.
Nope, my nervous system was completely on edge, my vision bleeding red as soon as I stopped actively suppressing my vampire side from coming out, and I was one creaking floorboard away from throwing caution to the wind and storming out of our house.
I’d known it was going to be bad, but I hadn’t expected this.
“Talk to me,” Bennie said, nudging me when I sat down next to him, just like he’d wanted me to. Gone was the teasing grin I’d missed a lot during the past weeks. He was back to being serious, and that was just plain wrong.
“I knew us being apart would be hard,” I began, running a hand through my hair as the urge to just… get up and get out of here hit me again. I dug my fingernails into my scalp, drawing a bit of blood.
Fuck.
My claws were out.
“But I hadn’t expected it to be this bad.” I ground out, my fangs aching.
Finn wasn’t safe out there.
I mean, in theory, Ambrose shouldn’t be able to get to Finn because it was the middle of a sunny winter day. But the reality was that Ambrose had ample connections among human gangs and drug rings and… whoever else. He could easily employ one of them to abduct Finn.
And then?
It’d take me hours to know.
I’d be sitting here, waiting for him to come home, just for him to never show. I’d be left wondering if he was running late, had an accident, or if Ambrose had gotten to him.
“Can you check the tracker?” I asked, voice strained.
Bennie huffed out a laugh. “I can’t believe Finn agreed to that. Wait. Yes I can. The dude is so whipped he’d probably let you chip him like a dog.”
My hand darted out, wrapping around Bennie’s throat. No one compared my mate to a dog.
I snarled at him, watching Bennie’s shocked face through a red fog. It took me a few seconds to realize that attacking him for a dumb joke was a bit over the top, even for me, and I let go of him.
“Sorry,” I mumbled at the same time Bennie apologized to me too.
